The one-time chief executive of Asda believes his new discount clothing start-up has the potential grow to a 1,000-strong chain. Andy Bond, who led Britain’s second-biggest supermarket group for five years until 2010, yesterday opened Britain’s first Pep & Co store. The outlet, in Kettering

Less than two years after it opened up to the outside world, Burma is taking rapidly to social media. MySQUAR, which begins trading on AIM tomorrow, claims to have a first-mover advantage. The company has raised £1.7 million from investors, valuing it at £18.5 million. By the end of next year it

After five years, tens of thousands of pages and £125 million, the fate of the plan to build one of Britain’s biggest mines will hinge on a single meeting. Sirius Minerals’ proposal to dig 2.7 billion tonnes of potash — a valuable fertiliser ingredient — from a mile beneath the North York Moors

Two planning decisions in the north this week will speak volumes about Britain’s ability to cope with big projects. Today, Lancashire county council will decide on Cuadrilla’s fracking proposal near Little Plumpton, outside Blackpool, having already thrown out an application to drill test wells

An Argentinian judge is preparing to freeze the local assets of an American oil company helping British oil explorers drill for oil in the Falklands. Lilian Herraez, a federal judge in Tierra del Fuego province, ordered the seizure of $100 million of assets. including bank accounts, boats and

Rio Tinto is to sell its businesses in Zimbabwe, bringing a 60-year presence in the country to a close. The FTSE 100 mining company has agreed to sell its 78 per cent stake in Murowa Diamonds and its 50 per cent stake in the Sengwa Colliery energy project to RioZim, which is an existing

One of Britain’s most prominent frackers said that it would not be deterred by Lancashire county council’s rejection this week of the country’s first proposed shale gas project. The annual results of IGas, an onshore oil and gas exploration and production company, were overshadowed by a rejected

Lonmin has been excoriated by the South African government for failings leading up to the Marikana massacre, but Cyril Ramaphosa, the ANC deputy president who sat on the miner’s board at the time, has avoided censure. In a televised address last night, President Zuma detailed the findings of the

Demand for new nuclear reactors is beginning to stir back to life after the Fukushima disaster, but the uranium mines needed to feed them are still years away, according to a report. Japan is scheduled in August to restart its first nuclear reactor since the 2011 tragedy, while about 65 new

A plan by Tony Blair to prevent the plunder of natural resources in poor countries has been criticised by the academic who helped to inspire it. Paul Collier, an Oxford development economist, said that the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative may have made matters worse by encouraging